Life is full of changes and challenges, and 2011 is going to include both for me. Inspired by Kelly Rae Roberts, this piece was created to denote my journey through the upcoming year.

I was able to get photographs as I made this piece and thought I would share a tutorial. Normally you would do a piece like this on a canvas, but alas, I have none. This was created on a piece of 8.5" square cardboard that was heavily gessoed on both sides to give it a little strength.

Using basic scrapbooks papers, I cut various sized squares and just glued them down randomly using mat gel medium.

Then it was given another coat of mat gel medium. Let it dry completely. I made a basic sketch with charcoal to use as a guideline. This could be anything you want to sketch.

I used 2 colors of acrylic paint, blue and green. The paint was puddled side by side on a piece of wax paper and then I used my small brayer and picked up the blue on one end of the roller, and the green on the other. I rolled this all over the piece, outside of my sketch area.

Next, I took a damp paper towel and wiped away some of the paint until I was satisfied. In some areas I added a bit more paint, and then wiped away the excess again.

The next step was to paint a rusty red in the bodice, this time using a paintbrush, then again, wiping some away. A rich brown was used in the dress, using the same technique. I took a bit of both of these colors and dabbed them on to the background, helping to integrate them into the overall piece, making it more cohesive.

Gesso was used to paint in the wing area, again wiping the excess away. The head and neck were painted completely with gesso to prep it for the face. The face and neck were then painted with a pale beige.

Now comes the more difficult part for me, sketching the face. I had actually considered leaving her faceless...no guts no glory, or so the saying goes. I used a charcoal pencil to sketch the face and painted it with acrylics. To get different skin tones, paints were watered down quite thin.

The whole piece was then outlined with black paint. I used charcoal to create shadows along the body and in the wings. The words were stamped with black ink. The whole piece was sprayed with fixative.

When finished, I was pleased. I have a long way to go with sketching, but it is a beginning.

About Me

Julie Shoemaker

Michigan, United States

I'm a wife, mother, grandmother and a full time Realtor, not in that particular order. To avoid the 'empty nest' syndrome several years ago, I started paper crafting. Thanks for stopping by my special place and for sharing in my folly.